How to get ads on your blog without junking it up

There are many ways to make money using your website. One particular option that most people can take advantage of is advertising on your blog. This is a way to earn revenue in exchange for giving out visible space on your site. It can be a very lucrative business, especially if your website already has a decent amount of traffic. But to be successful, you need to know the basics of how to get ads on your blog.

Why you should advertise on your blog

Think about it — your website is very much like real estate. The more content you have, the more potential space you have to make money with. All you have to do is place ads around your articles. As the content creator, whether a small business owner, an entrepreneur or a blogger, you can control what types of ads and how many you want to display on your blog. In some cases, you can even control the price.

Sure, you can try other ways to make money blogging, but when you explore how to gets ads on your blog, you’ll find there are several rewarding options that can be lopped under this method.

How to get ads on your blog

There are plenty of opportunities to earn income by putting ads on your website. Below are just a few, as well as some links to some of the places you can go to get ads for your site.

Some of the sites might have more methods for getting ads on your blog than just what is listed. Also, each of the companies have their own guidelines and requirements for websites. These requirements could be anything from a minimum site age to how much traffic your website gets. Some networks may even have rules about number of ads displayed on a single page or publishing sponsored content on back-to-back posts.

Pro tip: A good rule of thumb when trying to join an ad network is to wait to reach out until your website has been active for a minimum of 90 days.

PPC ads

PPC (pay-per-click) advertising pays out a set amount each time someone clicks on an ad. The PPC ads displayed on a page of your blog are pulled in because they target a keyword that fits with the topic of your article.

The company that created the ad pays for each click (up to a preset budget), and since the ad lives on your site, you get a portion of that spend.

Just because you sign up with a PPC network, however, doesn’t mean you will always have a page full of ads. Which advertisements appear and where is dependent on how relevant they are to your website. For example, if you are running a tech gadget blog, you will be more likely to see ads that are related to technology and devices.

For some bloggers with high traffic, hosting PPC ads is a method that can bring in quite a bit of money. In more unique niches, which usually have keywords that aren’t as commonly searched, the payout might take some time. Either way, finding the right platform to partner with is the first step to making money. Services that offer PPC opportunities for bloggers and content creators include:

Banner and link advertising

Third-party banner and in-text link advertising networks can help bloggers find advertisers who want to post fixed display banner or text-link ads on their blog. These services allow you to charge a set price for ad space or can help you structure rates in the PPC format. You can choose which type is best for you. Either way, you know what ads are being displayed and where across your pages.

When the third party lists your blog as an advertising outlet, it shares a few details about your website — such as traffic stats, content theme, and anything else that might motivate an advertiser to use your blog. It will also list a price, sometimes by month, for showing an ad on your website. Because it is a third-party service, they get a cut, which is sometimes half of the price that the ad space was listed for. Below are a few services that will help you sell banner and link ads:

Sponsored posts and reviews

If you don’t want to wait for PPC ads to pay out and third-party networks to bring in advertising opportunities, increase your chances of making money by producing sponsored content. Between all that content you write, it’s OK to have a blog post here or there that has been paid for by a brand (just make sure you note it’s advertorial content). The following are a few companies that are looking for people to write about a business or one of its products:

These networks have their own requirements and not all are the same. It’s extremely important to be honest and transparent about your traffic, including on social media channels, as many of them offer social media sponsored ads, too.

Sell your own advertisements

Sometimes when trying to get ads on your blog, you just need to take some control over your own advertising and offer in-house banner ads, text-link ads and sponsored content opportunities. Some companies have active blogger and website outreach programs and prefer to work directly with you instead of a third-party ad service. In this case, there’s no middle man (or woman). You can charge what you feel or negotiate a price and terms that are agreeable to both parties.

When handling ad sales on your own, you will want to set up a page on your website asking advertisers to contact you about advertising opportunities. Better yet, you might want to put together a media kit. These serve as a short brochure showing potential advertisers what your site stats are, what types of advertising spaces you offer, and how much you are charging for your service.

A lot of times, a media kit looks more polished.

Knowing how to get ads on your blog means you have a great opportunity to make some money. You can try as many of the above methods as possible to get the most out of advertising sales. Keep in mind, though, that too many or annoying ads may send visitors away, so try to find the right balance. And if having ads around your content just isn’t your thing, you can always try making money through other tactics, such as affiliate advertising or guest blogging.

Nile Flores is a St. Louis area professional blogger, as well as a WordPress designer and developer. She has taught thousands of bloggers over 14 years how to create, maintain, and promote their blogs. Her passions are writing and helping people. Nile runs All About WordPress on Facebook, a group dedicated to helping all levels of WordPressers. Another way she helps, is giving back to the WordPress community by speaking at locally run WordCamps around the United States.

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